Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-26
A POINT AT ISSUE.
BETWEEN RI. REV. BISHOP KAHN ANDREW.
N. L. ATWOOD.
The Last Named Gentleman Presents Some Thoughts
and Claims on His Side Of the Question,
Last Evening.

learned lectures and the subsequent news
paper controversy. Last night Rev.
Atwood leetured to a large congregation,
including many Catholics, taking as the
particular subject of his discourse the fol-
lowing language of the Rt. Rev. Bishop,
in reply to Rev. DR.. Cunningham
ITO discredit God Almighty when he
teaches any doctrine, whether 1t appears
10 rs important or ~unimportant, Is to I'M
dermine all faith in Gods word"
$40 this" said Mr.. Atwood, AL pro-
~testants will agree" but he adds, that this
Isl
"Just what l have charged Professionalism
with doing"
He then, continued Mr.. Atwood, gives
this example Of the Protestant method OF
d~iscrediting the word of Cod
1.-THE Rev. DR.. Cunningham evidently
entertains doubt rs to the statement; the
Bible is q clear plain book. read therein:
This is nv body / believe that Christ
means what these words clearly and plainly
express. The DIR. reads the same words,
and he thinks that they clearly and plainly
mean: This is not my body"
To the Bishop himself, then, said Mr..
Atwood, this much Of the Bible, at least,
is a clear and q plain book. But in making
this admission he is anti Catholic himself;
for | have good, sound, Catholic authority
in nv possession which declares that The
good Catholic does not trust himself to
explain and interpret what he reads In 1t
THE Bible) and imagine be can understand
il by himself"
But, waving this objection to the Bishop
as an interpreter OF the Bible, let us sup
pose he believes it because the words were
spoken by Christ himself. He said: This
is my body which is given for you" This
the Bishop believes to be literally true, be-
cause Christ said it, and he holds that 1t
will s'discredit God Almighty to suppose
that the words were used in a tiguratiye
sense. Webster gives q number OF detini-
tiOns to the word body. 1t IS
impossible to tell which of them would
best suit the Bishops meaning. We
select person" as the likeliest n
Then the bread was changed into the per-
son of Christ. We will apply the Bishops
rule of Interpretation to what Christ said
of himself elsewhere. He said, II am the
vine" A vine is a trailing or climbing
plant. By his own rule the Bishop must
insist that the bread was changed into a
trailing or climbing plant. He also said,
81 am the root" The root is that part
of a plant which enters the earth and sup
ports the plant in an erect position"
Then by the same rule the bread was
changed into a root. And again he says,
~ am the bright and morning star" The
morning star is the planet Venus. Fol-
lowing out the literal meaning OF the
words, and the bread was changed into
the planet Venus. In the same manner
the Savior said, 81 am the
door," ~ am the way" and many
other things beside these he was declared
to he, into every one of which by the legi-
innate and inevitable result OF Bishop
Kain's~ Interpretation the bread was chang
ed when the Savior said, This Is my
body" The rule that applies to one must
apply to all. The Bishop himself will
hardly claim that one is literal and the
other tigurative. By his rule they are all
literal. By the Protestant rule they are
all fguratIve. To the Protestant their
| significance is ''clear and plain and sub
uTIvIy DOS~Ash-o~ +hh. Pishnzia -Ni~
they are q conglOmeration Of absurdities.
But the learned Bishop must 90 a great
deal further than this. In the humble,
submissive, childish simplicity Of his I'M
questioning faith, he must believe that a
man-RodrigO Borgia for instance, who,
probably, surpassed all other men whose
Infamous records blacken the pages OF
history-his own son, Cesar possibly ex-
cepted-in cruelty, rapacity, c~ovetousness,
simony, incest, adultery and murder; who
purchased the Papal Throne, and died from
accidentally swallowing the poison he had
prepared for a company of Cardinals whom
he had invited to feast with him-he
must believe that this monster OF iniquity
was the successor Of st. Peter" His
Holiness the Pope" The Vicar OF
Christ" ''The Yieegerent of God" He
must believe that this wretch, full OF
all subtility and all mischief, child OF the
devil, enemy of all righteousness" could,
in the exact phraseology of St. Liguori,
take 1.-THE bread and the wine as Christ
did" speak over them the same words
that Christ spake; and thus the bread and
the wine are now changed on the altar, as
they were at the last supper, N the
Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
There is one way and n way only OF
accounting for the belief of a learned man
in these gross, ~palpable, absurdities. 1t
is the belief of Pr~otestants that God endow-
ed nan with reason, and then addressed
the Bible to his reason to guide him into
all truth. The true Catholic puts no
trust in either, or both of them together.
For this statement l quote high Catholic
authority:
"The simple Catholic Christian never
rests his faith upon any book"
The true Catholic does not trust to his
own reason and judgment, in matters OF
faith, however learned he may be.
The good Catholic does not trust himself
to explain and interpret what he reads in
it, 1.-THE Bible and imagine he can under
stand il for himself.
He believes in the Holy Ghost alone
who dwells in the Catholic Church OF
Christ and speaks to him through her
Pope, Bishops, and Priests.
No belief can be too absurd and mon
strous for q man to accept and profess,
''however learned he may be-" who lays
aside his reason, and the book of God, and
adopts instead of them the teachings OF
AACn cIealuIeS aS hOuIlRO DoiSh9'
To face such men at the head Of a church,
and teach such ahominable a~bsurdities in
it, and then call that church the Church
of Christ, has done, and will do, more ITO
undermine all faith in Gods word" than
all that has been written, and all that has
been spoken, by all the infdels, from the
days of Julian the Apostate to the present
time.
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